Jack was already deeply regretting this mission. Something had smelt wrong about it from the very second that Carpenter had paged him and General Hammond. With raised eyebrows, Carpenter had informed Jack that the Russian team had returned, with an alien in tow. It was one of the few things that Jack saw completely the same as Carpenter – the breaking of the well-placed rule regarding randomly bringing aliens home. It had become worse as Lieutenant Colonel Evanov had pointedly informed everyone present that his reasons for bringing Alebran to Earth was because of Nirti's escape under Jack's watch. It was something of which Jack did not need reminding. When General Hammond had insisted on SG-1 taking the Russian team as back up rather than SG-3, Jack knew that the day could not get any worse. Except now he was staring at a random ceiling, his muscles protesting at any movement. The last thing he remembered was lowering his weapon as Nirti held her Zat directly at Carter's head. It was the same action he would have done no matter who Nirti had held, especially considering that they needed Nirti. He could recognise the post-Zatted feeling anytime.
"Colonel?" Turning slightly, Jack saw Carter sitting on the other side of some bars and his thoughts of being in a cell of some-sort were confirmed.
Slowly sitting up, Jack then glanced around him and was thankful that he and Carter were actually in the same cell; bars separated their beds in an odd design. Teal'c and Daniel were in the next cell. There was no sign of Evanov. Jack hoped that meant he and the rest of the team guarding the Stargate were going to burst in and rescue them at some point soon. "Yeah, I'm okay. You?"
"Fine, sir."
Moving his eyes from her, he glanced over at the other members of his team. Teal'c nodded his head slightly and Daniel rested his head back against some railings as he spoke, "Sorry, Jack, Nirti used the rings and came out of nowhere."
"O'Neill, Eggar is telepathic and Wodan has the power of telekinesis."
"Brilliant. So she's making superheroes, is she?" The fact that Alebran had already died due to the DNA altering was not lost on Jack and he worried that he and the rest of his team would be next to join the team of Avengers surrounding their cells. "Gonna try and save the universe." Jack stood up and walked around his cell, looking around at the other products of Nirti's experiments. "Hey, people, Nirti is not your God! We can help you. Anyone got any powers to help? Anyone? Anything? Adamantium claws?" There was no response and Jack was not surprised. There was movement from what was potentially the only way in and out of the larger room and all four members of SG-1 stood and approached the bars of their cells.
As Eggar and Wodan approached, a barely conscious Evanov being dragged by them, the cell doors opened upward. The thought flittered through Jack's mind that he should attempt to rush the aliens, but despite not having seen the full force of Wodan's telekinetic abilities, Jack did not think his chances in a fight would be very good. They dumped Evanov near Jack and Carter's feet; both immediately grabbed him and pulled him up onto Jack's bed. They then turned back to the aliens.
"You can read my mind?" Jack asked, hoping to make his intentions clear and Eggar nodded. "Then you know that we came here to help you."
"You did," Eggar confirmed. "But I saw further." There was a slight pause which Jack chose to not fill. "You will not hesitate to kill all of us to achieve your goal. And we will not let you kill Nirti. She is helping us."
"She is saving us," Wodan agreed.
"No, she isn't," Carter objected, stepping to Jack's side.
Eggar looked directly at Carter, considering her for a moment. "You are not as harsh as him. You would not kill us all to get to Nirti." Jack's eyes flickered to her and saw her nod. "But you would to save him." From the corner of his eye, Jack saw Carter look at the floor. There was possibly a slight flush creeping into her cheeks, but it was too dark to tell. Eggar looked back at Jack. "You would sacrifice everyone in this room, on this planet for your mission. Except her."
"We can help you," Carter said and Jack hoped it would take Eggar's attention away from his internal thoughts. Things had been getting easier between himself and Carter in their personal lives ever since his disastrous mission to P5X-777 with Maybourne. Their work relationship had never suffered, but at home there had been over two weeks of barely speaking and even the odd argument. If it were not such a problem, Jack would joked to himself that it was just like any other marriage; he and Carter were most definitely not married. He was fully aware that the feelings they had long ago left in the room were growing and evolving. It had always been a possibility, a strong possibility, but Jack had long ago mastered burying his feelings. Apparently a telepath could unbury them.
"You will come with us," Wodan stated, pointing at Carter and moving a step backwards.
"Take me instead." Jack stepped forward, safe in the knowledge that he would have done the same for Daniel and perhaps Teal'c.
"Nirti has requested the female."
"Yeah? Well, I'm more fun." Jack stepped again, to go with them, but he felt himself stuck. It was as if there was an invisible wall wrapped around him, preventing any movement in any direction. He did not like it.
"You are worried for her?" Eggar questioned. "You fear for her and it pains you." The disfigured alien looked confused, unable to comprehend the meaning behind Jack's thoughts and feelings.
Carter stepped forward. "It's okay, sir. Maybe the protein marker will prevent her from altering my DNA." Reluctantly he nodded at her and he watched as she willingly followed the other aliens. She was sacrificing herself for the others as it was a fight none of them could win at the moment. Colonel Jack O'Neill may not be a scientist, but he knew that a protein marker in the blood was unconnected to a person's DNA.
SG – SG – SG
"Hey," he almost whispered. "You okay?" She felt him gently touch her shoulder and she nodded her response. "Let's get you up."
Sam allowed herself to be guided by O'Neill as he helped her onto her bed, not that she wanted to make any claims to it. Once they were both seated, she leant her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes again. The machine used by Nirti had caused her pain and she was still suffering from the after effects. After a short time, she felt the pain ease enough to be able to speak. "Colonel?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm scared." So far they had no idea of the alterations Nirti had made to people were all the same. There was always a chance that Sam was not going to suddenly become a pool of water, instead perhaps she was simply going to become horribly disfigured and be able to read people's minds. That would at least be useful at home when trying to figure out why on earth her daughter was crying. This was supposed to have been a simple mission – a few Jaffa and one Goa'uld. Things were far more complicated than that.
"Whatever Nirti's done to you, we'll find a way to reverse it and get you home." It was a promise that she knew O'Neill would die to try and hold.
"What if we can't reverse it?"
"We will." O'Neill's stubborn streak was sometimes a positive thing. "Unless Nirti gave you some amazing super-hero power. Then you can keep it and Dani will have the coolest mom ever."
Sam smiled despite the pain and fear, but then she sobered. "I miss her."
With his right hand, O'Neill stroked her cheek. "If I could bargain with Nirti right now to get you home, I'd give her anything she asked." She knew how deeply he meant his whispered plea. Unfortunately neither of them knew how long it would take for the process to fully start. They had no idea of the time frame between Alebran's initial alteration and his liquefying, however, Evanov had not taken long. He was gone before Sam had been returned by Nirti.
"Don't say that." Perhaps it was the fear that she was going to die soon, but Sam felt the lines blurring again.
"Why not? It's the truth." His voice was so quiet that Sam was not sure it was her imagination.
It might not make sense, but she needed to tell him what she thought. "It's not just Nirti. There's someone else here. I can sense them."
"In here or when you were with Nirti?" Sam opened her eyes at Jack's question and saw Teal'c stand on full alert.
"Everywhere." It was different to the presence of Nirti, but it did feel like that of a Goa'uld. There were only two Jaffa with Nirti, but Sam could feel a much stronger presence than that.
"O'Neill," Teal'c warned and the colonel manoeuvred Sam off of his shoulder to stand at Teal'c's side. Sam watched as a Jaffa entered the dingy block of cells. She did not recognise him as being one of Nirti's from the DNA machine.
"Tau'ri, the woman will come with me."
O'Neill stepped closer to the cell gate. "Take me instead."
"My master has asked for the female."
"Who is your master, maybe I can talk to them?" Sam watched as a Zat blast shot out from the Jaffa's location and O'Neill then fell to the ground. The Jaffa then shot another blast above the fallen O'Neill and Sam lost consciousness.
SG – SG – SG
When Sam awoke, she was in a different cell. She was lying on a cool, hard floor but it was not a dirt ground. From the small area of ceiling that she could see without moving, Sam would hazard a guess that she was on a Goa'uld mother ship. Forcing herself to sit up through the pain, she saw Colonel O'Neill lying unconscious near her. It came back to her now that after being removed from Nirti's cells, they had both been taken somewhere else where two Jaffa had then tortured them both. She had fallen unconscious before O'Neill had. So much time had passed, but she had not liquefied yet. She considered the fact that perhaps whoever had taken them from Nirti had also been able to fix her DNA.
"Oh, God!" O'Neill groaned, regaining consciousness. "Carter?" His throat sounded sore and his voice came out as a hoarse whisper.
"Colonel, you're awake." It made things sound as if she had been awake for ages. She watched as he struggled to sit up, grimacing in pain as he did so.
"You okay?"
"Yeah."
"Are you hurt?"
"Just a few scrapes and bruises. I don't think there are any internal injuries." A silence fell over them where Sam was not sure that she could hear anything at all, including any sounds of nature or the ship's engine. Then she asked him, "What happened after I passed out?"
"They tortured me a bit more and then I joined you in sleeping."
"They never asked me anything. I don't think that the Jaffa wanted any information from either of us." That made her torture seem somehow worse than any other previous because at least there was normally a point to a torture session.
"I've got no idea what they're up to. Do you think it could be Anubis?"
Sam had no idea what was going on. Someone had rescued them from Nirti to torture them somewhere else, after solving her DNA alteration. "At least we haven't gone into hyper-speed at any point whilst we've been awake." She was sure that they were not in hyper-speed now either. Unless the cell in which they were imprisoned was sound and motion proof. There was not a hum of engines or any vibrations coming through the floor. That could mean that they were still on P3X-367 and could be rescued when the Russian team brought reinforcements, or it could simply be that they were transported to another planet whilst unconscious and other Stargate teams would never be able to find them. It was not impossible, Teal'c and General Hammond had located the rest of SG-1 when Hathor had captured them, but the galaxy seemed bigger now with more Goa'uld on the scene. No matter how hard her friends tried to find them, Sam had already lost track of time and could not remember how long it had been since she had last seen her daughter.
She missed her daughter. Then she lost control of her emotions, sobbing, "I want my daughter." Daniella was a few weeks over a year old, able to pull herself up and loved crawling randomly around their house. She had her own distinctive giggle and loved buttons and loose threads. Tears quickly filled her eyes and Sam did not try and stop them spilling over her eyelashes and stream down her cheeks. She wanted to hold her child.
Without realising it, Sam suddenly felt O'Neill's arms wrap around her, tightly holding her. "Carter, I already told you – we're gonna get home."
She took a small amount of comfort from his arms, aware that if she had been captured with any other military officer she would not have received any comfort. Sam would have forced herself to be stronger if she had been with anyone other than members of SG-1. Pulling away from him to look O'Neill in the eye, she said, "Don't you ever worry that we won't?"
Cupping her face and staring hard into her eyes, he answered, "We will get home. We will both see Dani again."
"Colonel-" she tried to object, but he stopped her.
"No, Carter, we will. And we'll go on with our lives. We're not ready to give up yet. Do I make myself clear?"
Despite all the good that her job did, despite how important she seemed to be in keeping Earth safe, Sam often felt quite selfish. She willingly went on missions where she could easily be kept away from her child for days on end, sometimes weeks, and risked never returning to her child. "What if I want to give up? What if I want our lives to change, to prevent this anymore and just be a family?" It might be her fear, her lack of sleep or all the recent weeks catching up to her, but at that moment Sam would give it all up to simply enjoy a life with Daniella and Jack.
Shaking his head, O'Neill refused, "You can't. I won't let you. I…" He removed his arms from around her and shifted slightly to lean against the wall next to Sam. "Your brain's too important to the SGC." Putting his arm around her, she shifted to rest her head against his chest in an act far more intimate than they would normally cross on a mission. "We'll get out of here, alright?" She nodded against his chest and soon found her eyes closing.
SG – SG – SG
The days began to blur and Sam tried her hardest to keep track of time, but it was difficult with no access to daylight. It was also unfortunate that neither of them had any field rations and the bowls of gruel and water were running out. Sam had tried using when the guards turned up as a means to assess the time, but they had not been in over twelve hours, or it could be over twenty-four hours. Luckily, O'Neill had advised them to ration out their gruel which had been fortuitous as the Jaffa guards had not been around in at least twelve hours. They had both scoured the wall of railings which separated them from their freedom, but there was no way of breaking out of them. For the time being they were both stuck with limited water and gruel. The only real benefit that Sam could take from the whole few days was that she had not disintegrated or come apart at the seams. O'Neill had joked that perhaps Nirti had managed something else with her, but she had not been able to move anything with her mind, see through objects, read minds or turn invisible. Sam was sure that O'Neill had actually seemed disappointed. They had no idea why the Jaffa had abandoned them, or even what Goa'uld had abducted them from Nirti's prison as all of the Jaffa had their emblems removed. It was highly possible that they were on a completely different planet and that no one knew where they were at all.
She could not deny that she was still concerned over their predicament, however, Sam had calmed down from the high emotional state she had been in. Her thoughts were still jumbled with regards to her daughter and working, but they had decreased back to what they were on a normal daily basis. It had all become more difficult since she had her daughter as a large portion of her thoughts consisted of worrying over her daughter growing up alone. Sam had first-hand experience of growing up with a parent in the Air Force and after her mother had died, Sam had felt very alone during her teen years. Daniella had two parents in the Air Force, but she also had two parents who were half of the most elite team within the SGC. At the moment, Sam was still putting her job first, but she knew that at some point she would put her daughter above the universe.
"Another day…" O'Neill mumbled, the boredom clearly evident in his tone.
"Maybe today will be the day, sir."
"Let's hope so, Major Glass Half Full." She grinned and he allowed a small smile to flitter across his face. They then returned to silence which was how they had spent most of their current imprisonment. When there was a noise from down the corridor, Sam glanced at her watch again and realised that less than an hour had passed since their brief conversation. It had seemed far longer than an hour. They looked at each other as the banging noise continued and they each got to their feet; O'Neill's knees caused him to be slower than her. Attempting to peer through the railings, they both stood trying to quieten their breathing so to make out the noises clearer. After a few minutes of banging, it stopped and was replaced by what could be footsteps.
At the same time both of them began shouting at whoever it was. They were already trapped so no matter who was approaching them it served nothing to be quiet; there was always the hope that it was the rest of SG-1 coming for them. "We're down here!"
"Sam? Jack?" It was Daniel's voice and Sam closed her eyes, breathing out slowly as she realised they were safe.
"Danny, we're down here. In a cell." Sam rested her forehead against the bars and felt O'Neill's hand on her back, comfortingly stroking it a few times. "Told you they'd come for us." His voice was quieter when he spoke to her and there was something less authoritative in his tone. She dare not risk glancing at him, instead she simply stood there allowing the relief to flood her.
"Yes, sir." It was only a few minutes before Sam looked up into the happy faces of Daniel and Teal'c.
"Am I glad to see you guys!"
"Me, too," Sam agreed.
"Stand back," Teal'c warned and once they were all clear of the bars, he fired his staff weapon at the bars and once the smoke cleared O'Neill and Sam stepped through the hole; O'Neill gesturing for Sam to go first. Once they were all out in the corridor of the facility in which they had been held, Daniel indicated which way they needed to head.
"So where are we then?" Sam asked as she took the weapon Daniel held out to her.
"Another abandoned fortress."
"On the same planet?" she asked, thinking that it was incredibly big coincidence if they were.
"No, actually. We had to do a bit of investigating, but Nicola found the intel about where you were being held."
"What happened with Nirti?" O'Neill asked, pausing at the door at the end of the corridor.
"Daniel Jackson was very persuasive with regards to Eggar and Wodan."
Blushing slightly, Daniel explained, "They had no idea where you two had gone and Eggar immediately realised that my panic with regards to you was completely genuine. He'd seen your concern for Daniella as well, and from there it wasn't that difficult to make him take a chance on us. I convinced him to look into Nirti's mind. He refused, but he questioned her on your whereabouts and she was angry that you'd both gone. I argued with him that if she really were a God then she would know. He looked in her mind, Wodan killed her and then they started fixing their people."
"Neither they nor Nirti's mind held any information on your location."
"So we headed back to Earth, got reinforcements and started trying to find out where you could be. We went to a Tok'ra operative and Nicola managed to sweet-talk a Jaffa into giving up some information. Tracked you both down to here."
As they stepped into the daylight, Sam blinked rapidly at the strange bright light. "Where is Carpenter?"
Daniel looked concerned. "She should be here, she was just scouting the area."
"You're both okay," Carpenter said and everyone turned as she approached from behind them all. "There's no sign of the second Goa'uld. I found a few dead Jaffa, but no signs of life at all. The coast's completely clear."
"Let's head home, shall we?" O'Neill asked, allowing Teal'c to lead the way.
"By the way, Sam," Daniel began, "I'm pleased you're still alive, but how come you aren't a puddle?"
"I have no idea." Whilst she was glad that she was still alive, Sam could not deny that she was worried as to how she was still alive or if there was something else altered within her.
"We'll get Doc Fraiser to check you over and, then, some much needed down time. I, for one," O'Neill said, "could murder a juicy steak."
Smiling, Sam nodded and tried to put her concerns to the back of her mind.
Author's Notes: After the Russian team bring back news of Nirti's whereabouts, SG-1 accompany them with the hope of capturing or killing Nirti. Nirti has other plans for SG-1.
Bit of angst, capture and mild torture in this one!
End Notes: So the middle two sections are re-writes of excerpts from More than Hopeless, which chronologically happens after this WIP. This chapter does tie into that story, which will be re-posted when this fic is done!
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc, are the property of their respective owners. Any original characters and plots are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. ... [ read more ]